Introduction and summary
According to "Australian Wildfire: Hundreds of koalas feared dead", many people are afraid that a very large bushfire that burnt through 20 square kilometers of genetically diverse koalas breeding ground near Port Macquarie in New South Wales might kill many koalas there. The koala rescuers also said this blaze might make the koala population decrease, which is a tragedy because there are only around 43,000 koalas left in the wild and listed as "vulnerable species". But the staff from Port Macquire Koala Hospital said that there is a possibility of koalas to survive if the wildfire passes through the tree fast enough to not kill but only leave a burnt on their fur.
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Response: What is your opinion?
I felt unpleasantly surprised that koala was listed as "Vulnerable" by Australia's Environment Ministry and wildfire is pushing them to decrease more than a hundred each time it happens. The reason why I thought this way maybe because there is not much bushfire happens in Thailand, at least not as much as in Australia, so when I read that there were hundreds of bushfires in the past months, it sounded terrifying.
In the article, they said that they blamed for habitat loss, disease, dog attacks, and climate change that is pushing koala to be declined, but I think most of those reasons are somehow related to bushfire. It is because, even though the blaze didn't make koalas permanently lose the forest they stayed, they are forced to seek new forests to live, and this makes koala has to survive from being killed by dogs or by cars. Also, we can't deny that the wildfire effect on the ecosystem since it burns all both adult trees and undergrowths, and when the ecosystem is ruined, it can affect climate change to worsen indirectly. And the climate change in the present is bad enough to kill koalas, especially in Australia's Summer when heat waves and dehydration can kill both humans and wildlife.
In the article, they said that they blamed for habitat loss, disease, dog attacks, and climate change that is pushing koala to be declined, but I think most of those reasons are somehow related to bushfire. It is because, even though the blaze didn't make koalas permanently lose the forest they stayed, they are forced to seek new forests to live, and this makes koala has to survive from being killed by dogs or by cars. Also, we can't deny that the wildfire effect on the ecosystem since it burns all both adult trees and undergrowths, and when the ecosystem is ruined, it can affect climate change to worsen indirectly. And the climate change in the present is bad enough to kill koalas, especially in Australia's Summer when heat waves and dehydration can kill both humans and wildlife.
As far as I knew, the female koala will generally have only one offspring per year and not all female koala breeds every year which might be a main reason why it's hard to increase the koala's population. And this made me started thinking that it will be very difficult for those people who want to breed and taking care of all species of koalas in order to protect them from listed as "endangered species" in the future.
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I suspect that a lot of those 43,000 koalas that Aom tells us about live around the area where I grew up in Australia. When I was growing up, my brothers and sisters and I were always thrilled to spot a koala in a tree on our family property.
ReplyDeleteThese days, I usually see a few when I stay at my brother's home on my annual visit to Australia. They are not particularly exciting animals, since all they ever do is sit high up in trees sleeping and eating, but they are an iconic symbol of my country, and I always try to get a few photographs to show my Thai friends when I'm walking through my brother's native bush.
But I disagree a little with Aom. I think humans really are their biggest threat, not fires, which have always been a part of Australia's natural environment. These days, a lot are killed by cars when they come down from their trees at night and cross roads to get to new trees. Around my homw area, there are signs on the roads warning drivers to be careful of koalas.
When I went to New South Wales I also saw a few of road-killed too. Mostly was kangaroos and also snakes. It's quite sad to see them like that.
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